I travelled solo late in the season at the end of October and stayed for one week. The weather was great, sunny with clear skies. The hotel has a magnificent location right on the beach and within a walking distance from the old town. The beach is great, and the hotel also has a good sea-water pool downstairs, where I enjoyed a good swim every evening. The whole staff was most friendly and willing to give assistance even in the slightest matters. I've never had such a wonderful breakfast before: one morning there was even a real show of mastery as a member of the kitchen staff prepared me a special treat of scrambled eggs. The comfortable room was a double room with an open view to the town, much better than what I had experienced ever before, travelling single. I can truly recommend this hotel, even for solo travellers!

We went with Thomson Holidays who offered the Alisios hotel in Albufeira - it was was right on the beach so no need to go elsewhere for a swim in the warm waters of the Atlantic here at Albufeira. (7 days of warm sunshine and clear blue skies at the end of September.)They also have a heated indoor pool for those days when the sea is a bit rough. There is an expansive elevated terrace with loungers if you don't want to lie on the beach below. The staff were exceedingly friendly and helpful - couldn't have asked for better! We had B&B package and the variety and quality of the breakfast food was fantastic. Good English spoken by all staff in the hotel and indeed most local people we encountered, shopkeepers, restauranteers and taxi drivers. The Hotel was beautifully furnished in modern style, but with traditional touches in the furniture placed on the landings and alcoves, and very clean. Used the bedroom air conditioning sometimes at night, but opening the balcony gave adequate cooling during the day. Many German clients, so the Brits were in a minority, but everyone very pleasant. Mostly couples or groups of adult friends. No young families here.
Out and About:
In the evenings we mostly went into Albufeira old town (10 minutes walk) to eat and enjoy the live entertainment in many of the bars. Once we stayed for the hotel for their Saturday night barbeque with live music and once we went up to the New Town to sample the night life and eat on "The Strip".
Both old and new town areas are very clean and full of places to eat and drink - the choice is overwhelming. We can recommend Cabana Fresca on the sea front and Ricardo's Italian Ristorante close by. Both buzzing at night. Slightly at the back of the Old Town is a quality restaurant "Grandmother's House". In the New Town, on the Strip we dined well at Restaurant/Pizzaria Ramos.
Transport:
The little Tourist Train runs between the Old And New Towns - a round trip is 2.50 Euro or you can hop on/hop off for 4.00. However a taxi between the two towns is only 3.90 so we settled for taxis home most of the time.
Sightseeing:
We did one excursion with friends who had a car to Cape St. Vincent, the most westerly point in mainland Europe and the nearby enormous coastal Fort at Sagres - spectacular.
Overall: This was a great holiday and Thomson looked after us royally. Recommended !

Reasonably small and friendly hotel. We had a 4th floor road view room - modern room with a fair sized modern bathroom with walk-in shower, but lack of storage space a bit of a problem and we had to leave many of our clothes draped over suitcase so glad we took a few of our own coat hangers. No need to take soap as bathroom is fitted with Dove soap and also Lux shower gel/shampoo dispensers.We understand this is an adults only hotel, certainly no children while we were there. Breakfast was fair and on a couple of mornings the chef cooked fresh omlettes/fried eggs to order. The charge for one sunbed on the beach was 12 Euro's so we bought a sunshade from the supermarket in town for 5 euro's and then found that previous guests leave these and other beach items behind at the bottom of the door access to the beach - so we needn't even have bought this. We stayed on the sun terrace a couple of mornings and found there was plenty spare and no towels reserving the beds. We also hired the beach towels from the hotel so if you're nearing you luggage weight limit, it's also handy to know you can hire these. Walk to Old Town is pleasant and this is a really nice place in the evenings Sunday to Thursday, but we found on Friday and Saturday nights when the weekenders arrived that unfortunately the Hen & Stag parties had arrived - even though the Montechero Strip has been purpose built for the English Hens & Stags and the whole atmosphere changed and became a less family orientated place if you stay out to midnight and beyond and where there had been live entertainment during the week, these places then turned into loud disco music booming out instead. We would definately recommend the Alisios so if you find a room available, book it quickly as we overheard that Thomson's are only allocated 11 rooms each week and even though English guests are in the minority we found everyone to be very friendly and Ashleigh, the Thomson Rep gives an informative Welcome Meeting. One tip about currency is to take Sterling travellers cheques or cash to exchange for Euro's in resolt as there is no commission, but if you take Euro Travellers Cheques there is a minimum 3 per cent commission charge.

The hotel was very nice, very clean and not too big. We loved the beach. Our room looked to the sea over the sun terrance (we got a free update from land-view room). The interior of the room was recently renovated and modern. The situation near the centre of Albufeira was good, only 5-10 min walking from the hotel either on the beach or using roads. The staff was very friendly. Breakfast was fresh and good (continental style).